“At an international level the festival generated a great impact, the guests were very pleased, and the field industry grew a lot. We are taking positive accounts, although there are always things to improve”, said Gabriela Sandoval, Director and founder of the event that in the past 10 years has established itself as one of the most important film festivals in Latin America.

The famous Hollywood actor, Michael Madsen, known for his rebellious characters in Quentin Tarantino films, was invited to the national festival to talk about the new movie of the Californian filmmaker, entitled “The Hateful Eight”. His presence was certainly one of the highlights of the event; the actor was surprised with people’s hospitality and even announced that he plans to return to Chile to produce a documentary.

The most outstanding works of the cinematographic event were the documentary “Surire”, by Bettina Perut and Iván Osnovikoff and “The Wolfpack”, directed by the American filmmaker Crystal Moselle. Both films were awarded as the best productions of the competition in the categories of best national and international film, respectively. The jury chose “Surire”, a work focused on the history of the Aymara culture, because of “their ability to locate the viewer in the middle of the contrast between the immensity of these beautiful landscapes of the Altiplano and the small, solitary but courageous lives of the people who live there”.

In the remaining categories, the film “Verano 98″ of Valentina Azúa won the prize for the Best Chilean Talent Short Film. Also, Carola Fuentes and Rafael Valdeavellano obtained the award for the Best National Direction with their documentary called “Chicago Boys”, while in the international category, Sebastián Schipper received the same award for his film “Victoria”. At the same time, Elena Anaya was chosen as Best Actress of the contest for her role in “La Memoria del Agua”, by Matías Bize, and the Argentinian Dolores Fonzi received the same recognition for “La Patota”, by Santiago Mitre. Finally, Nicolás Zárate was chosen as Best Actor for his role in “El Tila: Fragmentos de un Psicópata”.

This way, a new version of the SANFIC festival comes to an end, demonstrating that every year the film industry grows more and more in Chile, while the culture of cinema is also expanding through other local festivals such as FICVALDIVIA and FICVIÑA. Thus, Chile proves to have a critical audience, a land of great artists, poets, and filmmakers.